NBC Silences Father of the Pride

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DreamWorks' expensive animated sitcom sits out sweeps.

By KJB

NBC is having to swallow a little Pride for the November sweeps. The network's expensive animated sitcom, Father of the Pride, has been pulled from the schedule for the duration of the ratings sweeps according to trade newspaper, Variety.

NBC executives insist that Pride isn't cancelled but at an estimated $2 million per episode to produce and anemic ratings, continuing the series seems unlikely. The series received its best lead-in audience ever last week with the premiere of the new reality series, The Biggest Loser (insert favorite punchline here) but still only managed to put together a 2.8 rating with a 7 share, numbers that hardly get shows on UPN renewed. The network plans to air the six unaired episodes during December.

The series, produced by the same studio behind the highly successful Shrek film franchise, was seen as an important step in DreamWorks Animation's move into other forms of entertainment. DreamWorks still stands to walk away from the experience with more to show from it than NBC; the network was on the hook for all of the production costs and the cost of backup scripts, which may explain why Pride could be getting shown the door early.

Father of the Pride will be replaced by "super sized" episodes of The Biggest Loser. If Pride gets the axe, that will leave only three sitcoms on the NBC schedule, Will & Grace, Scrubs and the Friends spin-off, Joey.

NBC has already pulled the plug on one new series so far, the ratings-challenged Hawaii and is taking a hard look at the Heather Locklear / Blair Underwood series LAX. The series is moving to Wednesdays but will only air twice in its new slot during sweeps. If it tanks the way it has been on Mondays, LAX could be joining Hawaii and Father of the Pride on the ratings scrapheap.